This invention relates to the utilization of rubber and glass materials and, more particularly, to the utilization of used rubber and glass materials to form a new composition.
Industrialized societies produce large quantities of waste materials which are typically incinerated and then used as landfill. However, in recent years there have been increased efforts to recover the valuable products from this waste. In particular ferrous metals have been separated from the waste by magnetic attraction and have been melted, combined with new metal and used to form new metallic products. Rubber from tires has been reused to form new tires. Attempts have also been made to convert animal and vegetable wastes into sugars, alcohol and even hydrocarbons, e.g. methane gas, which can be used in other processes.
The glass material found in waste is typically not reused because there are more than 500 different types of glass made each year and each must be made with certain critical parameters. It would be extremely difficult to separate the various types of glass in the waste material into the type needed for a particular process.
Plastics are used to produce a number of inexpensive items. Usually, plastic objects are made from previously unused raw materials, e.g. crude oil products. If it were possible to replace these plastic objects with objects made from waste materials, there would be a saving of raw materials, particularly precious crude oil.